A community pub in Grizebeck, Cumbria, has been put onto the market on the auction website Ebay.

The Greyhound Inn won the Best Traditional Business award in the 2009 Countryside Alliance awards and was taken on by a committee of local people who were desperate to save the pub from closure.

But, 20 months on from the committee’s takeover, the pub’s future remains uncertain. The locals, all of whom were regular customers at the pub, appear to have called time on the venture and withdrawn after being unable to reach an agreement to buy the premises.

Now owners Dick and Christine Strike have listed the pub on Ebay with a £300,000 price tag.
Christine Strike said, “We did not want to take it back on. Dick is going in for spinal surgery soon, so he will not be physically able to do anything in the pub. This is not what we wanted for the Greyhound – we wanted it to go from strength to strength.”

Mrs Strike said, “I was was sad when I heard the committee were unable to buy the pub. They came to us last week and said they do not have the money.

“We need someone to take it on, so we’ve put it on Ebay for 10 days. We already have one watcher. We will be keeping our fingers crossed for something to happen,” she added.